Greek police consider hiring immigrants

From GR Reporter :

27 Mar 2009

Elef[ther]os Tipos newspaper claims that the Greek police are seriously considering the possibility to start hiring immigrants. By doing this they are hoping to lower the crimes, committed by foreigners or targeted against foreigners. The goal is to create a special team, which will be part of different criminal circles, in order to try and gather information, which for now is unreachable for the Greek policemen. Similar practice exists in the UK, USA, and Austria and it provides excellent results. This advice was given by an expert from Scotland Yard, who is advising the Greek police in their anti terrorism fight. The Diplomatic advisor of the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Bitzios, supported and commented on the idea.

Hiring foreigners to work for the Greek police was a taboo for many years. Ever since 2005, the subject started making its way into discussions here and there. But the data given by the former London police director and now current advisor for the Greek police Sir Ian Blare is eloquent: “During 2001-2002, immigrant policemen in London were a little bit over 5%. During 2007-2008, this percentage increased to 21%. Meanwhile racist crimes in London decreased to 14%. Right now 1200 immigrants work in Scotland Yard. The goal is their number to increase 5 times until 2010.”

“At least one foreign policeman in every police station” is the slogan raised by the Vienna police. The US has the longest history on this topic – 46 000 policemen and women are born outside of the US. This is 6% out of the whole American police. 1/3rd of the policemen in New York are foreigners. Though, this probably will not happen soon in the Greek police. Experts are certain that hiring Afghans and Pakistani would solve many problems. They can be hired only if they have Greek citizenship, because otherwise this would go against the constitution of the country. For now, there are not Afghans and Pakistani with Greek citizenship.

Meanwhile, criminality in the Greek capital is increasing as a geometrical progression. Only in March, 8 murders have happened in Athens. For comparison – for the same period, 10 murders have happened in London, when you keep in mind that the city has 7.7 million citizens—in other words, it is two times bigger than Athens. For the first 2 months of 2009, 28 murders or murder attempts have happened in Athens – the number of those was 17 in 2008.

IQ - 'The Darkest Hour'

Neocons Launch New Foreign Policy Group

From Antiwar.com :

 A newly-formed and still obscure neoconservative foreign policy organization is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.

The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neoconservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. "surge" in Afghanistan.

But some see FPI as a likely successor to Kristol's and Kagan's previous organization, the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which they launched in 1997 and which became best known for leading the public campaign to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein both before and after the Sep. 11 attacks.

PNAC's charter members included many figures who later held top positions under Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

FPI was founded earlier this year, but few details are available about the group, which has so far attracted no media attention. The organization's website lists Kagan, Kristol, and Senor, who came to prominence as a spokesman for the occupation authorities in Iraq, as the three members of its board of directors.

Two of FPI's three staffers, policy director Jamie Fly and Christian Whiton, have come directly from foreign policy posts in the Bush administration, while the third, Rachel Hoff, last worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Contacted by IPS at the group's office, Fly referred all questions to Senor, who did not return the call.

The organization's mission statement argues that the "United States remains the world's indispensable nation," and warns that "strategic overreach is not the problem and retrenchment is not the solution" to Washington's current financial and strategic woes. It calls for "continued engagement – diplomatic, economic, and military – in the world and rejection of policies that would lead us down the path to isolationism."

The mission statement opens by listing a familiar litany of threats to the U.S., including "rogue states," "failed states," "autocracies" and "terrorism," but gives pride of place to the "challenges" posed by "rising and resurgent powers," of which only China and Russia are named.

Their prominence may reflect the influence of Kagan, who has argued in recent years that the 21st century will be dominated by a struggle between the forces of democracy (led by the U.S.) and autocracy (led by China and Russia). He has called for a League of Democracies as a mechanism for combating Chinese and Russian power, and the FPI statement stresses the need for "robust support for America's democratic allies."

This emphasis may also indicate that FPI intends to make confrontation with China and Russia the centerpiece of its foreign policy stance. If this is the case, it would mark a return to the early days of the Bush administration, before 9/11, when Kristol's Weekly Standard took the lead in attacking Washington for its alleged "appeasement" of Beijing.

For its formal coming out, however, FPI has chosen to push for escalating the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan. The organization's first event, to be held here Mar. 31, will be a conference entitled "Afghanistan: Planning for Success."

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[ source: Atheo News - Dauntless Dissent ]

Greek Jews 'shocked' after Holocaust denier is acquitted by Athens Appeals court

About time Greece's deep-rooted antisemitism was addressed. -- PD

From the European Jewish Press

27 Mar 2009

ATHENS (EJP)---The Greek Jewish community said Friday it was “shocked” after neo-Nazi militant Kostas Plevris, who wrote a book denying the Holocaust and containing offensive references to Jews,  was acquitted by an Appeals court in Athens.
Plevris was found not guilty of “incitement to racial hatred and violence against the Jews” by the 5-member court.
 
In a reaction, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) expressed its “disappointment and amazement at the decision of the Athens court.
 
"This decision saddens and causes concern among citizens of a modern democratic society as a self-confessed advocate of Nazism and racism remains unpunished though he not only distorts proven historical evidence, but even worse, uses his pen to incite hatred and provoke discrimination and violence against citizens of Greece and Europe," the Central Board said.  
 
“The Greek Jewry believes that the fundamental constitutional right of freedom of speech has nothing to do with the direct threats, insults and incitement to racial hatred and violence against the Jews that Plevris includes in his book" titled  “Jews-The whole truth” .
 
Plevris had been convicted in first instance in December 2007 and condemned to 14 months of imprisonment on probation for three years for “racial insult”, “incitement to hatred and racial violence” on the basis of the 1979 anti-racist law.
 
At the time, the Jewish community saw the trial as a key test of the Greek authorities' determination to deal with anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in a country where anti-Semitic literature such as the infamous “Protocols of the elders of Zion” is on sale in bookshops.

The charges against Plevris were also brought by the Helsinki Monitor and the “Anti-Nazi Initiative” organization, two human right Greek NGO's.
 
He immediately appealed the sentence.
 
According to Moses Constantinis, the Appeals court prosecutor characterized Plevris's defamatory book – which denies the Holocaust, calls the Jews “sub-human” and threatens them with the “re-opening of the crematoria in Auschwitz- a “scientific work”. [emphasis added]
 
To express the resentment of the Greek Jews, the Jewish umbrella body has decided not to be represented at the European symposium “Building together the Future of Europe” which will be held next Monday in Brussels, “given that theoretical analysis and statements made by Greek MEPs on the denunciation and condemnation of anti-Semitism are meaningless”.
 
Around 6,000 Jews live in Greece.

Bomb rocks port city of Piraeus, Greece

From Southeast European Times :

ATHENS, Greece -- A bomb exploded early on Friday (March 27th) in front of a building with offices of marine companies in Piraeus. The explosion damaged nearby buildings and parked cars but caused no injuries. Anti-terror police are investigating.

In other news, police in Athens used tear gas Thursday to disperse a group of around 100 firemen who protested in the city centre, demanding permanent job contracts. A far larger group, more than 1,000 firemen, staged a peaceful rally outside the Labour Ministry on Wednesday. Around 5,500 Greek firemen work under non-permanent contracts. Their trade union says the government failed to provide them with permanent contracts as promised. (AFP, City - 27/03/09; BTA - 26/03/09)